the most beautiful thing: smoulder

What is it about smouldering, dark-as-night, endless-as-a-well eyes that pierces me so? Runs me through in all the right places, because I am run through in all places? Kills me again and again, a quick painless, indeed ecstatic, death? What is it about the flash of those browns that pins me to the wall, to my own bones and does not let me go. What is it that lifts me up to meet the moon and stars and drops me from heights unvisited but for the wings of angels? What is it about your eyes that breaths the very essence of god into me?

Is it that when I fall into those eyes, I fall forever as if falling right off the face of the earth and into the night sky, across galaxies unexplored, across time and space? Is it that inside that swimming empty space, black from the lack of intrusions of light and object, there is endless possibility? Is it that in those endless, bottomless, filled-to-the-brim eyes that I am most reflected, that my image becomes clear as if falling on the surface of a new moon black sand tidal pool? Yes, I dare say, yes. It is true that I am made more whole, sink more into myself, arrive more fully here than I have ever been before and since those eyes.

So, then, is it really about me? If yes, then it is simply and completely about that part of me so ready to respond at the slightest of your touches even from afar. It is about that part of me that combusts to create anew and melts to feed the forest at the mere thought of those deep pools of wanting, those oil-rich caverns of love, giving, and hunger. Inside this wanting of soul-meld, this hunger for sheer life force incarnate, we collide. We collide in the eternity without borders that is the space between this ocular romance and the chakras that extend far beyond this room, let alone this body, all at the hint of the glint of those eyes. It is about me. It is about me with you.

It is our true call and response, beyond words beyond questions answered and requests honored. It is the promise offered and taken by dark and light, new moon and spring fern. It is this exchange, this holding-up of all that is right in us that will pull us through the muck and mire. There will be hands held and bodies connected, whispers and shouts and songs and smiles, deep breaths and deeper wanting, but without question it will be the eyes that have it, that have us right where they want us: interlocked, completed, smouldering, beautiful.

I’ve found what I think may be and remain my favorite little jazz club in Santiago. El Perseguidor is an intimate, softly-lit club in the heart of the Bellavista Barrio in Santiago’s north-central area of Providencia, just a short walk from Pablo Neruda’s famous house in the city called La Chascona. The service at El Perseguidor […]

Shortly after arriving in Sangtiago, Chile I am excited. I’ve seen a number of stellar jazz musicians and feel that, while somewhat on the small side, the jazz scene here is alive, appreciative and open to new things. I am looking forward to finding my way around, meeting lots of musicians and getting back on […]

I heard from Walter Fordham today, the Director of The Chronicles of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, that he has chosen my jazz track Clear Blue Sky for a series of online radio broadcasts for The Chronicles. The series is called The Essential Chogyam Trungpa and features talks by Carolyn Gimian and Barry Boyce on dharma teachings […]

I am happy to tell you about a feature in this week’s Dharma/Arte online magazine! The segment includes three of my songs, lyrics, and thoughts on each, as well as inclusion of a piece I wrote “Why I write music.” Please visit the site, leave comments for them there, and please also support the magazine […]

I do, from time to time, imagine and sort of formulate the answer to the question: Why do you write music? And tonight, I think it is a simple one to answer. I don’t. Not so simple to elaborate upon, my answer. Really, I don’t. I don’t write music. The music writes me. I don’t […]

What can I say? I am not gigging right now, but I am swimming in music. Studying more, writing tons, and loving my life in the sweet-n-sour, bitter-n-bold, quiet-n-melodious way that makes me feel like what is happening (or isn’t) is perfect. Whatever is born out into the world from this time, I will be […]

Hi everyone! It’s been a few months since you heard from me here and my, how time flies! I’ve been immersed in creative projects, writing and re-writing, laying low under the winter snow and wind and watching for what’s next. After a high-energy fall run with The Boyfriend, my favorite six-piece musical lovers, I went into recluse […]

It was just after sound check for last night’s CD Launch party for Under the Apple at The b.side Lounge that the boys brought the day’s press to my attention. I’d been so preoccupied with the prep for the show, I forgot to check the papers to see if any of my press contact paid off. […]

We had a great time at KGNU last week and I was so appreciative of the hospitality of the crew, the sharpness of the sound team, and the enthusiasm of the Jazz & Beyond host, Sara Dee. The Boyfriend & I played a five-song set the featured music from Under the Apple, a couple of […]

Under the Apple Heather Marie Philipp Yours is a very eclectic sample. Many styles combine in these haunting tunes, but invariably, they create an inviting canvas for your sensuous vocals. I hear hints of jazzy Cassandra Wilson, feeling-saturated Radiohead, breath-carressing Joss Stone, and delicately-poignant David Sylvian. I would dare classify this album […]